Quit Big Tech in 2026?
Quitting big tech, is kind of like trying to give up smoking but if we were still living in the time when doctors were prescribing cigarettes to pregnant mothers and you needed cigarettes to chat to your racist uncle.
Here we are in 2026 and already its been a week where months happen and vice versa. In early 2025, I made a bold declaration that I was deleting my Instagram account, slowly removing every one of my over 2500 posts from the decaying platform. Stating that by the end of the year I'll be deleting all my Meta accounts. Alas its 2026 and I've done no such thing but I've learnt a lot about what this might take and this is my challenge to you for 2026. Quit Big Tech.
Before we give start giving up Big Tech, you kind of need to know what it is. Big Tech, like all the 'Bigs', is kind of a catch all term referring to overpowerful and antisocial corporate companies involved in the tech industry. It can tip toe into the conspiratorial like all 'Bigs', see Big Pharma or Big Agriculture, but often the truth of their fuckery is worse than anything your local farmers market stallholder will dribble at you while you try to buy the artisanal-organic carrots they couldn't sell to Big Grocery the day before.
When people say Big Tech, they're often referring to; Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Apple, Google (Alphabet), Nvidia and Tesla. Or as they're referred to on Wall St, 'The Magnificent Seven'. AI capital spending by Big Tech, to build datacenters contributed to nearly all US growth in 2025. Reporting by Ed Zitron found that, AI capital spending contributed more to growth of the US economy than 'all consumer spending' in the first half of 2025, a trend which is no doubt still continuing. I bring this up because access the many of Big Tech's platforms is for the most part free, if you don't count all the predatory data collection and targeted ads that you have to trapeze through every time you want to message your mum, that is.
If the AI Bubble bursts in 2026, access to many of these platforms will encounter increasing ads, scams, data collection and paywalls or subscriptions. To use Cory Doctrow's 2022 term, the process of enshittification has been in effect for a number of years but no doubt 2026 will see speed run of this process. So before the digital tools and online platforms you rely on break, maybe now's the time to get off of them, or at the very least diversify the tools you use.
While trying to quit Big Tech in 2025, the main lesson I learnt is that giving up Big Tech is an inconvenient, pain in the arse at best and currently borderline impossible at worst. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try and it can be a really enjoyable process of rediscovering online communities, physical media and fun gadgets, software and hardware. There's a whole community of people online sharing tips and grievances and collectively finding ways to remove Big Tech from their lives.
Upfront, if your serious about giving this a go I recommend the below resources:
- Community Action vs Big Tech - Signal Group Chat
This chat I full of people sharing tips for alternatives to Big Tech, news and information and is also a pretty great resource if you have questions. I recommend muting notifications for this though, its pretty active. - De-Google Your Life by YK Hong
A huge resource with everything you need to know about de-googling your life, not to mention their broader work in tech, online safety and digital surveillance. - Tech Won't Save Us by Paris Marx - Podcast
A weekly podcast hosted by Paris Marx speaks to a new expert to discuss different aspects of the tech industry. But more broadly its about what radical new ideas can inspire and direct a better world in response to the complete capture of our societies by Big Tech.
Some very silly examples of things I've found since attempting this process is the resurgence of DIY websites and HTML flash games. One of these is Draw A Fish, a simple little browser based game, where you draw a fish and watch it swim on your screen with other fishes people have drawn. My daughter and I, have played this game a number of times, taking turns to draw our dumb little fish then wait for it to appear in the tank. The other is a very NSFW game by Robert Yang called 'Rainbows are Carnivores' , another browser based game where not as the title suggests you, you use your fishing pole to catch hogs, which in this case doesn't refer to a big fish but naked men on the end of your line. It's a joyful little game, that's strangely addictive and hilarious all in one. I highly recommend playing both if you need a little reminder of what the internet was made for beyond our Zucked walled gardens.
Side quests over here's a breakdown of things I managed to get rid of in 2025 and the stuff I'm still trying to detangle from. Including why I think you should find alternatives, some links to guides and of course alternatives I'm using. Where possible I've transitioned to using more independent or open source alternatives with a focus on freedom of expression, user controls, data protection and security. None of these are perfect and many come with pros and cons, not only from a user perspective but also morally. The old adage of there's no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism is ever green but that doesn't mean you can't make better choices. And even better talk about why.
Quick List of current products I'm using:
- Brower - Duck Duck Go
- Search Engine - Duck Duck Go
- Music Streaming - TIDAL
- TV/Movie - Stremio
- Social Media - Bluesky, Tumblr, Discord, Mastodon
- Messaging - Signal
- Email - Proton
- Cloud Storage - Proton Drive
- Office Suite - LibreOffice and Proton
Spotify:
Starting with easiest one first, Spotify. While not technically part the Magnificent Seven, Spotify is still Big Tech. There's a myriad reasons for ditching Spotify that are pretty well known with the first being it basically has artists working as slaves and plays a large role in why your local music industry is broken at the moment. The CEO, David Elk has also taken his billions made from this slave like treatment of artists and invested it in the arms industry. More recently, Spotify has been reported to be running ICE recruitment ads for Trumps fascist regime.
I cancelled my Spotify subscription early in 2025 and jumped over to TIDAL because it appears to offer some of the highest payouts to artists, similar subscription price to Spotify and the quality and diversity of the music library is on par. Beyond TIDAL I often use Bandcamp where possible, especially for local artists and have started buying CD's again with the ambition of setting up my own digital streaming using Jellyfin this year. The process of jumping over was pretty easy and I used the built in TIDAL service to transfer my entire Spotify library over to TIDAL. Playlists, followed artists, saved tracks and all.
Alternatives to Spotify;
- Physical media and or Digital Audio Players
- Jellyfin
- TIDAL
- Bandcamp
- Soundcloud
Microsoft:
Like many of us, especially Windows users, I've basically been using Microsoft Office's software since I first jumped on a computer, with Word probably being the very first program I ever opened. But with a shift to subscription only options and more recently the shoveling of CoPilot into every single orifice of their products, many of their products have become completely enshittfied.
The final straw was when I realised that Microsoft had automatically upgraded my subscription to include CoPilot, dramatically increasing the annual price. Without any real way to opt out, I cancelled it. Because of this, The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has recently commenced proceedings in the Federal Court against Microsoft for allegedly misleading approximately 2.7 million Australian customers. Somewhat amusingly, just before the close of 2025, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tried to make the case we should stop referring to genAI outputs as 'slop'. I'm now referring to it as 'Microslop'.
It's also been alleged that Microsoft's Azure cloud compute product has been used by the Israeli military in its genocidal campaign against Palestinians, with Microsoft on the BDS list. In response a number of Microsoft employees have launched the No Azure for Apartheid campaign joining the growing No Tech for Apartheid movement. In February 2025, Trump sanctioned chief prosecutor on the case against Israel for 'alleged' war crimes and crimes against humanity , Karim Khan. The sanctions, resulted in Microsoft terminating Khan's outlook account.
While I still use Windows OS, I've now use LibreOffice, a free and open-source office productivity software suite which includes documents and spreadsheets. I've haven't used Outlook, outside of work, for years and if someone could create a version of Lightroom that runs on Linux I'd ditch Windows tomorrow.
Tesla, Twitter, Starlink and SpaceX (Or Any Elon Musk Company):
I'm not wealthy enough to have to navigate this problem but regardless we were never going to slow climate change but just driving a different car. Catch the bus, car pool, ride your bike and advocate as noisily as possible for free and accessible public transport and a move away from car centric urban planning. I'm not jumping on a rocket ship anytime soon but again can we just sufficiently fund public owned space programs. Starlink, there's alternatives out there but not my area.
As for Twitter, its a Nazi bar now. Pretty well any use of it just aids in the further nazification of the internet and by extension our communities. I do empathise with people who still rely on it for income but hopefully they're taking steps to slowly shift their audience away to platforms like Bluesky.
I hope I don't need to go into detail about why Elon Musk is bad and deserves to be sent into orbit on one of his explodey rockets.
Google:
Can I just start by saying fuck this company. Almost similar to Musk there's just too many reasons to get into why you should stop using Google products wherever possible. Ever since 2015, when Google changed their 'Don't be evil' motto, they've been well evil. From killing the open internet, to destroying search and ushering in genAI slop, their involvement in weapons manufacturing and tech to GeminiAI and its planet choking datacenters. Literally pick a reason. Or go look up Project Nimbus.
Now my personal and work life has been pretty tangled up in Google for a long time, from browsers and cloud storage to using GMail and of course Maps. This has been one of the hardest companies to divest from personally but for me maybe the most important. For getting off of Google though I really recommend YK Hong's 'De-Google Your Life' series. But here's a quick list of what products I'm now using instead;
Browsers and Search Engine:
- Duck Duck Go (DDG) - To me this has been the most consistent option for a number of reasons. You can completely opt out of AI search responses, the data security is secure without being prohibitive and I love the burn function which literally torches all your opened tabs and history, which is a really helpful tool on smartphones. Not to mention there's a little duck instead of the dumb Google logo.
- Qwant - I've seen this recommended by a few people online, including Paris Marx from Tech Won't Save Us, so can only imagine its pretty great if you have issues with DDG.
Email and Cloud Storage:
- Proton Email and Drive - I did a complete shift from Google Workspace to Proton products, briefly breaking my email for a couple of days in the process. The price is similar that of Workspace, with Proton Drive offering comparatively way more cloud storage at a more affordable rate than Drive does. Did I mention all of Proton is end to end encrypted as well? No more GeminiAI sifting through your files and emails and broader protections from data scrapers and digital surveillance. Proton also has an office productivity suite including documents and spreadsheets.
The big thing I've yet to be able to find a usable alternative for is their Maps app. But I haven't lost hope yet!
Social Media and Messaging:
For obvious reasons its borderline impossible to escape from under Zuckerberg's puritanical thumb on social media. Something the recent teen social media ban in so called Australia brought to the forefront for me is that social media has become so ingrained in how our personal circles, communities and society operates with one far right company holding a monopoly on those platforms. I saw the teen social media ban likened to smoking bans of the past, but being able to smoke a cigarette isn't how you talk to your mum or find out what's going on in your local community. The Zuckerberg monopolized universe includes; Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
At the moment Meta feels to big to fail, but unlike other consumer led boycotts to try shift society, Big Tech and especially Social Media platforms rely on users. They rely on growing users. Once users start to change their digital habits, there aren't just billions of other users out there to replace them. While never reaching the heights of Meta, MySpace once sat on the throne of social media.
I've been a pretty ardent Instagram user since 2013, a large majority of my career, arts practice and people I call friends can be traced directly back to using the platform. For all intensive purposes, what I do and the people I choose to hang out with, doesn't really exist today in the same way without Insta. I'm sure many of you feel similarly, after over a decade of memories and connections now live precariously on the platform as it rapidly crumbles away.
Obit for Insta done. There's no real replacement for Meta's products.
Not one that comes with all the conveniences and interconnected web of tools anyway. But those are the same reasons these platforms have been able to become so hostile to its users and society at large, in favor of ever increasing revenue growth. It's why Meta has so actively pursued a monopoly on social media, creating a giant walled garden out of what was the internet.
Regardless there's some real things you can do instead of just quietly waiting for its ultimate demise or just complaining you've got no reach on Insta anymore and can people follow your new account after your twelfth one was deleted abruptly.
They're all bite size approaches not a suddenly sabbatical, so here goes:
- Use other platforms as your primary social media:
This seems obvious but its maybe the simplest and most effective thing you can do. I started by posting first on Bluesky, then a couple of days later posting the exact same content on Insta. In between I regularly told my audience on Insta that there were new posts on Bluesky. Or insert any other platform you want to use. I've also been playing with Mastodon and been enjoying Tumblr again lately. If you can't leave Instagram UX design behind then I recommend using Flashes, which is an Instagram clone built on Bluesky. - Stop using DMs:
Ask for people's phone numbers or emails, shift your DM's over to another messaging service like Signal. I've been making a habit of pretty quickly moving conversations with people away from Instagram DM's and texting, calling or emailing instead. Once you've got someone's number, text them instead. This also means that if Insta suddenly disappears you'll still also have access to your contacts whether personal or for work. - Reverse Posting:
This kind of links to the first tip but is a different approach to keeping your Instagram account active while not offering it anything new. What’s reverse posting you ask? Well I made it up, I think. It’s when you only post old things or hyper relevant things you’d like people to be at or get involved in, then archive or better delete the post later or when it’s no longer relevant. - Download your data:
Something that really spurred me on in this process was downloading all my data from Instagram. Seeing the zipped gigabyte sized folders, with literally everything I'd ever posted on Insta really made it apparent how big my digital footprint was. There's a process involved in this but if you don't want to lose everything or just get a sense of how much you've posted you can follow this article. - Delete Posts and Messages:
On managing your digital footprint, start deleting posts and old DM's off of the platform. Not only is this good for the environment, yes there's a pretty major ecological impact to your shit being online, but it also reduces the availability for content to scraped or increasingly used against you especially in regards to increased social media surveillance as part of travel and visa processes.
I feel I've made this pretty apparent but why bother? Because Zuckerberg is openly supporting hate speech, fascism and allowing AI scrapers to train on everything you post. Plus the more time you spend on his platforms, makes revenue line go up, which makes Zuckerberg more money to continue supporting hate speech and fascism. It's a vicious little circle.
As I sat down to finish this piece I read Faine Greenwood's recent essay titled 'Rejecting Reality in the Age of AI'. It opens with this statement:
In 2025, many people don't just believe that Online is of equal importance to Offline. They believe that Online is the only place that really matters at all. I look into how the Internet and AI are encouraging more and more people to deny reality itself.
Greenwood articulates why its more important that ever to start taking back ownership about the decisions you make regarding digital products and your interactions with Big Tech. Trump was inaugurated into his second US Presidential term, flocked by a nightmare blunt rotation featuring almost, if not all, of Silicone Valley's elites. Big Tech's complete capitulation to the right is a broader symptom of their pursuit of endless growth through extractive and anti social decisions that impact us all. Trump's cabinet is made up of terminally online incels from podcasters to posters all dog whistling to an extremist far right base. To quote Greenwood again, 'this Terminally Online turn amongst the powerful is so dangerous'. The attention economy and our data, continues to funnel cash into pockets, continuing the descent and further enabling them.
But it's also incredibly brittle and overexposed. This is their big move and by removing your eyeballs from their platforms, you chip away at their power base.
In 2026 I'll be doing my best to continue detangling from Big Tech. And I'm once again proclaiming that by the end of I’ll be deleting all my Meta accounts, but really I want to try encourage as many of you to do the same. Quitting Big Tech is a lot like quitting smoking, even if you relapse, every day without it is better for you than one with it.
LINKS and SOURCES:
https://www.history.com/articles/cigarette-ads-doctors-smoking-endorsement
https://money.usnews.com/investing/articles/magnificent-7-stocks-explainer
https://www.techspot.com/news/109794-tech-investments-lift-us-gdp-amid-broader-economic.html
https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-a-money-trap/
https://drawafish.com/tank.html?capacity=50
https://radiatoryang.itch.io/rainbows
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy081nqx2zjo
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/google-wrong-side-history
https://www.liberationtoolbox.io/de-google-your-life/
https://little-flying-robots.ghost.io/rejecting-reality-in-the-age-of-ai-2/
